Launch of a New Weblog: 'Book Reviews by Rick Sincere'

Although the first posts appeared several days ago, I have waited until today to announce the launch of a new blog devoted exclusively to book reviews. Its title is "Book Reviews by Rick Sincere" and its subtitle is "An archive of articles and essays written from 1980 to the present."

It had occurred to me that many of the book reviews I have written over the years have never been available in a digital format (or findable on line). Part of the reason for this is that my heyday as a book reviewer was in the 1980s and early 1990s, although I have periodically reviewed new books since then.

As I explain in my "preface" to the new web site,

While I aim for this blog to deal exclusively in reviews of books, I may from time to time include interviews with authors, either in prose or video formats, or posts about the publishing industry. I hope, however, to remain focused on the printed word on bound pages.

My delay in announcing this new blog launch can be easily explained. I simply wanted there to be a substantial amount of material on the new site for people to read, so that it would not look like a paltry effort or a start-up that will soon be abandoned.

I can guarantee that the latter eventuality is unlikely. I have been digging through my (disorganized) files from the past 30 years and have already found dozens of what will probably turn out to be hundreds of book reviews, not to mention a dizzying array of other articles that I had forgotten about. (Those non-book-related articles will someday find their way to this blog.) Most of the essays and articles relate to foreign policy (with a heavy emphasis on Africa and nuclear weapons policies), although some address issues in education, economics, regulation, and popular culture.

I am quite excited about this new opportunity to recover otherwise lost essays and reviews. I hope that their new availability will be helpful to researchers looking for information about the history of the last fifth of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st.

Here is a sample of my first 20 posts on Book Reviews by Rick Sincere (which can be easily found at http://rickreviewsbooks.blogspot.com/:

'The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium'
'Beyond Queer: Challenging Gay Left Orthodoxy'
'Waging Nuclear Peace: The Technology and Politics of Nuclear Weapons'
'Titanic Legacy: Disaster as Media Event and Myth'
'Hold the Roses,' by Rose Marie

'Breathing Under Water and Other European Essays'
'The Struggle' and 'Dialogue in Williamsburg'
'South Africa’s War Against Capitalism'
'A History of South Africa' by Leonard Thompson
'The Counterfeit Ark: Crisis Relocation for Nuclear War'

'Justice and War in the Nuclear Age'
'In Pursuit of Happiness and Good Government'
'Politics and Government in African States, 1960-1985'
'The Spaniards: A Portrait of the New Spain'
'How to Make Nuclear Weapons Obsolete'

'Breakfast in Hell: A Doctor’s Experiences of the Ethiopian Famine'
'Law and the Grenada Mission'

Looking back at the "Introduction" to this blog in December 2004, I find that my original intention was to make it an archive of previously-published materials. That mission has changed over time, and Rick Sincere News and Thoughts is much more eclectic than I thought it would be at the beginning, half a decade ago. I hope that Book Reviews by Rick Sincere will maintain its discipline and focus. If it does not, I invite readers to give me a verbal spanking.

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